Pine Lake Park Usage Raises Questions Of Respect, Compromise

A conflict over a child’s one-piece bathing suit has Manchester officials pondering ways to encourage cooperation and respect among those using Pine Lake Park and its splash pad.

At the Manchester Township Council meeting Monday night, a township resident spoke to the council about an issue she encountered at Pine Lake Park a couple of weeks ago.

The resident told the council she was at the park with her children -- a 13-year-old girl with special needs and an 8-year-old boy -- giving them a chance to cool off before heading off to her son’s sports practice.

The park was packed with people that evening, she said, and “none of them were (Manchester) residents.”

As her daughter took off her beach coverup to play at the splash pad, the woman said she was approached by a man who asked that her daughter put the coverup back on. Her daughter, she said, has not gone through puberty yet and was wearing a one-piece suit.

“She looks like an 8-year-old,” the woman said. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Rather than argue with the man, she packed up her children and left the park.

“No matter what I would have said it would have been misconstrued,” she said.

The man -- and the others at the park that night -- were members of the Orthodox Jewish community in Lakewood.

“I have been there many times when they (the members of the Orthodox community) have been there and never had an issue,” the woman said. ”There is one gentleman who comes and bring all his kids and he is the nicest guy.

“But this man made me uncomfortable in my own town,” she said.

Pine Lake Park has been a favorite spot for members of the Orthodox community to come and bring their children for a few years. Last year the Township Council was faced with residents who were frustrated because a camp from the Orthodox community was bringing busloads of kids to the park and using it all day -- leaving residents feeling unwelcome, they told the council at the time.

Season passes and daily badges were instituted this year, along with an ordinance that bans the use of the park by any group without a permit -- which has enabled the town to turn away buses from the camp this year.

But Councilman Craig Wallis said there are limits to the restrictions the town can place on use of the park, because it was funded in part by Green Acres money, and as such has to be open to public use.

“I don’t mind if people (from outside Manchester) use the park,” Wallis said. “I just don’t want people to abuse it.”

The town has been working to make Pine Lake Park a place for Manchester families to come and have fun. Though the lake itself still isn’t swimmable -- a situation the town is continuing to address, Wallis said -- town officials have taken steps to make the park usable, including putting paddleboats that had been sitting back into use.

As for situations such as the one the woman detailed, Wallis said he hoped that anyone who comes to the park would exercise respect and consideration for everyone and understand that it is a public park, with many people from all backgrounds using the park.

The mother said she was upset that someone would come into a public park and try to impose their beliefs on others in the park.

”This park should be for residents,” she said.

Wallis said town officials would look into the issue to see what can be done.

“We have an outright goal to make Pine Lake usable again, so it becomes a gathering place for our residents,” he said.

(Pine Lake Park at sunset in 2014. Credit: Karen Wall)